Edward Huntington Williams

“ THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE ALTHOUGH the dirigible balloon in the hands of Santos-Dumont gained a decisive victory over all mechanical methods of flight theretofore discovered, even the inventor himself considered it rather as a means to an end, than the end itself. That end, it would seem, must be a flying-machine, many times heavier than the atmosphere, but able by mechanical means to lift and propel itself through the air. The natural representative of this kind of flying-machine, the bird, is something like a thousand times as heavy as the air which its bulk displaces. ”

“ In record-breaking speed tests of the automobile, machine and driver are in effect subjected to the influence of a veritable tornado. Theoretically it seems almost incredible that any power could drive a ton of metal against the air at such a speed; practically we see the feat accomplished. But the automobilist has tales to tell of the power of the wind against his face that are easily credible. Even at ordinary speed in a touring-car, as most of us can testify, the wind blows a gale, veritably forcing tears from the eyes of the novice and blowing them back over his ears. ”

“ The simplest things are hardest to explain. No man knows why and how gravitation acts; no one knows why a body at rest tends always to remain at rest until some force is applied to it; nor why when a body is once in motion it tends always to move on at the same rate of speed until some counter-force stops it. Such are the observed facts; they are facts that underlie all the principles of mechanics; but they are matters of observation, not of explanation or argument. And the fact that a revolving body tends to maintain its axis in a fixed position is a fact of the same category. ”

“ Since engines could be constructed weighing less than twenty pounds to the horse-power, theoretically such an engine should support ten times its own weight in horizontal flight in an absolute calm. As a matter of fact there is no such thing as an absolute calm in nature, air-currents being constantly stirring even on the calmest day, and this introduces another element in attaining aerial flight that is an all-important one. Indeed it has long been recognized that the mechanical power for flight is not the only requisite for flying—there is, besides, the art of handling that power. ”

“ Sir Hiram Maxim, the inventor of so many destructive types of guns, was devoting much time and energy to the construction of a flying-machine. His apparatus was of the aeroplane type, but unlike that of Lilienthal, Chanute, or Hering, was to be propelled by steam-driven screw-propellers. Nor was the apparatus he proposed to make a diminutive affair weighing a few pounds and capable of lifting only the weight of a man. His huge machine weighed in the neighborhood of four tons and carried a steam-engine that developed some three hundred and sixty horse-power in the screws. ”

“ NAVIGATING THE AIR IF it were possible to regard all medieval literature without more than a grain of doubt, we must believe that aerial flight by human beings was accomplished long before science had risen even to the dignity of acquiring its name. Thus, it is recorded by a medieval historian that during the reign of Charlemagne some mysterious persons having acquired some knowledge of aerostatics from the astrologers, who were credited with numerous supernatural powers, constructed a flying-machine, and compelling a few peasants to enter it, sent them off on an aerial voyage. ”

“ How could they hope to succeed on the outside, where the sea might be rough, when the speed of the David was not over five knots, and when they might be driven out to sea! Reckless as it might be, it was the most sublime patriotism, and showed the length to which men could be urged on behalf of a cause for which they were willing to give up their lives and all they held most dear. ”

“ In a word, the gyroscope is the most common thing imaginable. Indeed, if I wished to startle the reader with a seeming paradox, I might say without transcending the bounds of truth that, in the last analysis, there is probably nothing known to us in the universe but an infinitude of gyroscopes—atoms and molecules at one end of the scale; planets and suns at the other—all are whirling bodies. ”

“ A bicycle in motion gives an even more striking illustration of the same phenomenon. And best of all, a spinning-top. Everyone knows how this familiar toy, which topples over instantly when at rest and can in no wise be balanced on its point, rises up triumphant when whirled about, and stands erect, poised in a way that would seem simply miraculous198 to all of us, had we not all spun tops at an age when the world was so full of wonders that we failed to marvel at any of them. ”

“ If we make comparisons with different varieties of man-made records, we find that the swiftest human runner covers his mile at the rate of about twenty-one feet per second; the skater brings this up to about thirty-four feet; and the bicyclist attains the acme of muscle-motor speed with his eighty feet per second. In the case of the bicyclist, the wind-shield pace-maker on the auto-cycle plays an important part. But even so the cyclist would be left behind one hundred and thirteen feet each second by the flying automobile.
All these types of record maker, therefore, are quite outclassed. ”

“ At this time a curious belief had become current among the inventors to the effect that if a smooth-surface rail and a smooth-surface wheel were used, there would not be sufficient friction between the two to make it possible to haul loads, or more than barely move the locomotive itself. Learned mathematicians proved conclusively on paper by endless hair-splitting calculations that the thing was impossible,—that any locomotive strong enough to propel itself along a smooth iron rail would be heavy enough to break the strongest rail, and smash the roadbed. ”

“ Under such circumstances the gyroscope—though it continues to spin as hard as ever—has no effect whatever in preventing the rolling of the ship; it stands there, like the strong man bound, expressing its discontent with an angry groan. ”

“ We only know that manuscripts of the twelfth century mentioned the magnetic needle as an implement familiar to navigators, and from this time forward, we may feel sure, the new possibilities of exploration made possible by the compass must have suggested themselves to some at least of the more imaginative minds of each generation. Indeed there were explorers in each generation who pushed out a little into the unknown, as the discovery of various groups of Islands in the Atlantic shows, although the efforts of these pioneers have been eclipsed by the spectacular feat of Columbus. ”

“ To most persons, even to the cautious and scientific inventor himself, the performance of this, and a second aerodrome which flew about three-quarters of a mile, seemed to show that the secret of aerial navigation was all but fathomed. "The world, indeed, will be supine," Langley wrote a short time after the success of his flying-machine, "if it does not realize that a new possibility has come to it, and that the great universal highway overhead is soon to be opened." ”

“ The reason for the surprise of the generality of people in finding the submarine was not as yet an entirely practical war engine, is due to the enthusiastic misrepresentations of the daily press and magazines, whose readers have been led to infer that the modern submarine boat is so far perfected that it can do things under water almost as well as boats on the surface. Nothing is farther from the truth. ”

“ But there is a reason why the bird could not increase its speed indefinitely by imitating the lark's feat in a modified form, and this is the obstacle of atmospheric pressure. Air moving at the rate of sixty feet a second constitutes a serious storm; at ninety feet it becomes a tornado, and at one hundred and fifty feet it is a tornado at its worst—a storm that tears up trees and overthrows houses, and against which no man can stand any more than that he could breast the current of Niagara. ”

“ If we recall that a light hoop making perhaps fifty or a hundred revolutions per minute acquires a considerable stability, we shall cease to wonder at the rigidity of the axles of the wheels revolving at such enormous speed.
The model car accomplished the feat of carrying a passenger weighing about one hundred and forty pounds across a little valley on a wire cable, a voyage in some respects the most remarkable that any man has thus far been privileged to make. The car has shown that it can go up or down a sharp incline ”

“ The navigator has merely to measure the exact elevation of the sun as it crosses the meridian,—that is to say when it is at its highest point,—and, having made certain corrections for so-called dip and refraction, to which we shall refer more at length in a moment, a very simple calculation reveals the latitude—that is to say, the distance from the terrestrial equator. ”

“ The Wright brothers solved the problem after years of patient effort, and solved it effectively and conclusively. They profited of course by the efforts of predecessors, but they were the inventors of the airship in a far fuller sense than, for example, Fulton was the inventor of the steamboat, or Stephenson of the locomotive, or Morse of the telegraph. To their success, and to that alone, must be ascribed the fact that many scores of men in various parts of the world are now able to fly in aeroplanes. ”

“ Those who have witnessed the reckless manner in which the modern balloonist mounts thousands of feet into the air, seated on a trapeze or clinging to flying rings attached to an old balloon, patched and frequently rotten, may be inclined to sneer at the brave Rozier. But it should be remembered that in 1783 people had not learned nineteenth-century contempt for altitude. Furthermore, no one could tell what might be the effect upon the human system of ascending to a great height when away from a building or other terrestrial object. ”

“ EXPERIMENTS IN SOARING
Those who have watched soaring birds sail for hours on rigidly extended wings will remember that while there is no flying movement, there are certain shifts of the rigid body, either to offset some unexpected gust of wind, or to produce movement in a desired direction. There is an art of balancing here that has become instinctive in the bird by long practice which could not be hoped for in the same degree in a mechanical device, and which man could hope to acquire only by practice. ”

“ When we come thus to consider the gyrocar as a vehicle in which all of us may soon have an opportunity to ride, there is one practical question that is sure to present itself to the mind of almost every reader. What will be the effect should the electrical power that drives the gyroscopes give out at a critical moment, as, for instance, when the car is just crossing a gorge or river on a cable? ”

“ Far-reaching as are the economic aspects of the problem of transportation, this extraordinary revolution, the effects of which are visible on every side, has been brought about by the application of only a few types of mechanisms. The steam engine, the dynamo, and the gas engine are substantially responsible for the entire development in question. In the succeeding pages, which deal with the development of steamships, locomotives, automobiles, and flying machines, we have to do with the application of principles with which our previous studies have made us familiar ”